If I'm barry, I'm gripping hard at the prospect of losing to one of the worst candidates in the history of the republic.....

Dead Heat in OhioNovember 5, 2012 – 1:42 pmYou can’t get any closer than that. The latest from Rasmussen Reports shows Mitt Romney and President Obama deadlocked at 49 a piece in Ohio. Did Obama cannibalize his voters? Is Romney’s margin with Independents enough to win the day? We’ll find out tomorrow but for now it’s anyone’s ballgame in Ohio:

The pivotal presidential state of Ohio remains all tied up on the eve of Election Day. The final Election 2012 Rasmussen Reports survey of Likely Ohio Voters shows Mitt Romney and President Obama each earning 49% support. One percent (1%) favors some other candidate in the race, and another one percent (1%) is undecided. Ohio is still one of eight Toss-Up states in the Rasmussen Reports Electoral College Projections, along with Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin. Polls in Ohio close at 7:30 pm Eastern tomorrow. If Romney wins Virginia and Florida, he also will need to win either Ohio or Wisconsin to be on track to capture the White House.

The race in Ohio was tied late last week after Romney posted a slight 50% to 48% advantage a few days earlier. The candidates have been within two percentage points of one another or less in every survey in Ohio since May. Forty percent (40%) of likely voters in the Buckeye State have already voted. Obama leads 60% to 37% among these voters. Ninety-three percent (93%) have made up their minds whom they will vote for, and it’s Obama 50%, Romney 49% in this group. Helping to explain the closeness of the race here is that the candidates run nearly even when Ohio voters are asked whom they trust more in several key policy areas. Romney has a three-point edge over the president in voter trust when it comes to the economy, a two-point lead in the area of job creation and is ahead by one point with regards to energy policy. But Ohio voters trust Obama more by four points when it comes to housing issues and by two points in the area of national security. The survey of 750 Likely Voters in Ohio was conducted on November 4, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points.

Also, the names Andrew Mueller and Bucky Starburst are interchangeable in this as far as brain power go.

Well, American voters have made their 2012 presidential choice, and now they get to live with it.

On Nov. 6, the same day that saw the election of Abraham Lincoln and reelection of Ronald Reagan, they opted to reelect Barack Obama, the first time since the Founding Fathers that the country has awarded two terms to three consecutive presidents.

Two-thirds of Americans have consistently said the country is on the wrong track. So, naturally they opted to stick with a stinking status quo they've whined about for years now.

Unable to face the fact they made a colossal mistake in 2008, sufficient Americans voted to keep a president who broke more promises than he kept, who set historic new debt limits, created four consecutive trillion-dollar budget deficits, failed to achieve his own employment goals and accepted responsibility for nothing, except what SEAL Team 6 did for us.

"The best is yet to come," the chronic deficit spender vowed ominously.

Congress has enjoyed record low job approval ratings in recent years, So, unhappy American voters naturally chose to leave both chambers in the same inept hands: Democrats keep control of a Senate that's proudly broken its own laws three straight years by failing to pass a federal budget and cripples itself with archaic rules that make nursing home TV rooms look like Zumba workouts.

And Americans voted to leave in Republican hands the House of Representatives that has such a radically responsible view of fiscal and jobs policies that the Senate won't even take up the bills sent over.

All of this has worked so amazingly well the last four years that Americans obviously want more. And when it doesn't work again, you can bet like Obama they won't be pointing fingers at themselves.

To cap the evening's entertainment, Americans got for their electoral edification the traditional pair of speeches that reveal much of what could have been and what will be.

Exactly 10 years and one day after victoriously claiming the Massachusetts governor's office, for which he took no salary, Romney in 703 words graciously admitted his loss. He said the word "America" five times, the word "pray" three times and the words "Thank you" 21 times.

The Real Good Talker, who's never seen anything he couldn't throw a speech at, took 2,163 words to claim victory in what is traditionally a moment to call for unity and healing after a divisive campaign.AP

AP

The victorious Chicagoan, who promised before the last election to end Washington's partisan bitterness, strangely uttered the word "fight" five times and "thank you" but seven times. He spoke the word "unify" zero times, "unity" zero times, "heal" zero times and "pray" zero times.

He did, however, manage to mention himself 27 times.

Here are some of the other things the 2012 election revealed:

The nation's anemic economic recovery will go on life support because employers refuse to hire new workers as the new taxes of Obama and ObamaCare kick in. And then comes inflation.

Americans didn't quite elect the country's first Mormon president, but many millions were clearly comfortable voting for one. Check off that hurdle.

The federal government's assault on religious freedoms will continue by regulation and executive order.

Israel now clearly knows it's on its own as far as stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program is concerned.

Voters ensured that we'd find out what was that mysterious missile defense flexibility that Obama was caught promising Russia's leaders he would grant them during a second term as he hollows out America's military.

With Obama's extended family still ensconced in the White House, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa is certain to pursue the investigation of the scandalous four American deaths in Benghazi that Obama called "not optimal."

Voters witnessed the end of Chris Christie's budding hopes for a national Republican career. His ill-timed, over-the-top effusive praise for a visiting POTUS after Hurricane Sandy was an obvious bid to buy Obama's silence next year when the New Jersey governor faces a real reelection challenge, likely from Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

But beyond the Garden state, conservatives rightly view Christie's comments and presidential hand-holding and hugging as near-traitorous for needlessly elevating Obama's photo op to help stall Romney's momentum just days out. And assist the complicit media in ignoring FEMA's botched local assistance that ran out of water, of all things. "Great job, Craigie."

Christie may still try something in 2016. Oh, look! With Romney's defeat, the road is conveniently clear for him -- and others from the GOP's incredibly deep bench. But Christie will have as much success with that effort as he has with Jenny Craig.

American voters guaranteed they will discover that Obama's promise to increase taxes only on the very rich won't produce anywhere near a significant sum to cut the debt or deficit. With 47% of Americans already paying no federal taxes and no need to ever face voters again, Obama can only turn to the remaining 51% for their fair share of money to redistribute as he sees fit.

In his victory monologue, Obama praised Joe Biden as "the best vice president anybody could ever hope for." Seriously. That's a quote, not a joke.

Ominously, earlier in the day at the polls, someone asked Biden if this was the last time he'd be voting for himself. And the 70-year-old said he didn't think so.

Nah, that's just sour grapes. The republic endured through more trying times than this. The election is mostly a repudiation of what the Republicans offered via their candidate. Here's the lessons:

1. Privatization is not the solution to all problems. It breeds a corporate mentality of profit in areas that belong under control of the state, like prisons and schools and private armies (contractors) in combat zones. Work for reforms inside the public systems without kneecapping organized labor. Romney also embodies the evisceration of the middle class via Bain.

2. Despite today's dip, stock market is way up over last couple years. Recent Republican prezes have tanked the market by creating instability via permanent war footing. Manufacturing is slowly returning now that globalization has raised worldwide wages and cut back the profit margins on importing heavy goods. I support tariffs on foreign goods if necessary to protect American jobs, though I'm hoping the labor drainage to other countries is slowing so we can let the blessed free market dictate.

3. Environmental policy matters in a changing global climate and interdependent world. We are still the global leaders and need to set the example that other countries rise to, not just lower the bar. No more denial of facts by heavily corporate funded think tanks is possible. EPA has a role to play in making sure future generations have clean water and air. The future matters.

4. Idealism, positivity matters. No one will vote for pessimists. It's an optimistic country that repeatedly solves problems historically. Appealing to people's nobler instincts is good leadership. We are a society, not a freewheeling collection of gunslingers. The social safety net (though abused, like all systems) has a place in a society based on the ideal of decency. The fact that my physically handicapped bro (from birth) receives an SSI check every month is a testament to the philosophy that we take care of our own as a culture. People fought for that. I don't want to see it torn away. It will not make for a stronger nation.

I'm sure there's more. That's my opening salvo.

Republicans should be in on the solutions to these problems, as opposed to extreme and obstructionist (racist tea party yahoos.). That tactic has failed decisively. It's collaboration or no voice at the table.

5. Stop the war on women. Keep planned parenthood funded. Stop trying to do an end run around Roe V. Wade via sneaky state laws that push clinics out of business. Give up the draconian stance on abortion. That battle is lost. The country is pro-choice.

6. Immigration policy needs work. Neither party has been impressive on this front but republicans are somewhat correctly perceived as the party or rich old whites. You need to shift towards the concerns of a growing Hispanic population to have a chance in the future.

7. Stop muddying the waters between church and state. The founders knew what they were doing. Stop acting like Christians are a persecuted minority. You're the religious majority in this country and if you weren't so dogmatic and punitive your followers wouldn't be falling off like dead leaves. Your wounds are self-inflicted. People are entitled to believe in whatever they like or nothing at all. The bible wasn't written by god. It was written by fallible people long after Jebus died. (At least 100 years by most accounts.) Stop using religion as a cover to deny reproductive rights.

8. The debt matters. A lot. People want to see solutions to this problem plus long-term social security solvency. Republicans should be able to direct on this issue but they keep failing by going after straw men like PBS that the public actually values. Fiscal conservatives who are socially liberal can win big posts: see Guiliani and Bloomberg. But you can't package it with social conservatism and gutting the middle class. The corporate mergers from Reagan onward have squeezed all the life out of the culture. Radio especially is in the crapper b/c of deregulation. Excessive deregulation leads to a bloodbath with lots of losers and very few winners. It's not what the country wants.

Dont get caught up in the ridiculous left wing hype. Barry won by 2.4% of the vote. in polling, that's less than the margin of error..... statistically insignificant. Worse, the country couldnt be more divided along demographic lines. You call that a mandate? Most importantly, the dynamics in the 3 branches of govt are utterly unchanged.

Standby for 4 more years of the exact same shit sandwich we've had for the last 4.